Welcome to the realm of carbon nanomaterials. Our research focuses on the fundamental chemistry and applications of synthetic carbon allotropes and their hybrids, particularly endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs). Compared to empty fullerenes, EMFs offer unique advantages due to their ability to encapsulate diverse metal species, undergo exohedral functionalization, and exhibit remarkable metal-cage interactions and novel bonding motifs within the confined fullerene structure. The versatility conferred by these characteristics endow EMFs with multifunctional properties, making them promising candidates for molecular device fabrication with applications in biomedical technologies, single-molecule magnets, electrocatalysis and electronic devices.

In our group, we are primarily interested in:

1. Stabilizing unique clusters that are otherwise synthetically inaccessible by using the inner isolated space of the fullerene cages as an ideal platform. This offers an excellent environment and opportunity for investigating the nature of previously unobserved metal―metal, metal―non-metal, and metal―fullerene interactions, which are of fundamental scientific interest and importance.

2. Exploring new functionalities of EMFs and their derivatives, guided by their distinct inhomogeneity of electron density, which is caused by encapsulated metal moieties, external functional groups and enhanced electron transport properties. This advancement will greatly expand the potential applications of EMFs, surpassing empty fullerenes in emerging fields such as perovskite solar cells, single-molecule magnets, and electrocatalysis.

3. Developing the application of novel synthetic carbon allotrope hybrids for use in mechanical energy harvesting and artificial muscles. This research focuses on designing and fabricating macroscopic architectures based on hybrid materials to optimize their performance in these applications.